Stairway to Somewhere?

Here under the tent, we say
our final goodbye. Soon your
coffin will be lowered into the ground.
The crowd folds like fall foliage,
with promises that it will get better
and death is not the end.
What will they remember of you?
Your smile? The broach you always wore?
The photo of you on the beach
in your Sunday best, with sunglasses
as stylish as Jackie O’s.
Please send me a sign,
a popcorn kernel of hope
that your spirit lives on.
That your soul is in a peaceful
place. That days and years
from now, we’ll find you again.
I question the sky. It reflects
back light then dark. No
definitive answers there.
Yet still I search eternity,
for you. This depth of feeling
keeps me pondering infinity.
This anguish spurs me on.

excellent. haunting. maybe excise “popcorn” and replace with another metaphor.

what do we think when eating popcorn? movies? parties?

it’s hard. maybe allude to popcorn rather than state it. something about a hard seed turning into an amazing shape and full of nutrition…does attempt to grasp at hope – but i think it trivialises the seriousness of the rest of the poem…

I live with death, as death lives with me.
Time is all that separates me from the my unfinished dreams.
Either dust in the wind, or smoke on the water. Where has my pain gone, after it’s drawn out all tears.
Time will set me free.
I’m sorry to feel this way.